All 3 of these candidates were branded with lables not attractive to the workforce. Read on for detailed overview.

Now we know the show was once a reality show block buster. In season one, we knew not, what to expect. It was a fresh new concept that hit our television sets in 2004. Noting such, when the contestants returned to the board room, the losing team members were pitted against one another in the fight of their lives to acquire the coveted apprenticeship to Donald J. Trump. For the most part, the debate was spirited, but a bit more serious, respectful, and far more professional looking. The candidates really didn’t talk over each other much at all. There may have been one or two who did so, but after that, it seems like the show focused primarily on entertainment value vs. business acumen in future seasons. With that in mind, this leads me to review highly questionable firings from the 10th season currently in progress.

Being ‘recession themed’, season 10 was structured to help the candidates get back on their feet. Something every American can relate to right? Even post firing, which has never been done across the board for the entire cast. Unfortunately, this did not happen for many. In fact, many of them have now been tainted by their appearance, which defeats the central purpose of the show reverting from the ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ concept. Please allow me to elaborate further with very keen examples.

1st on deck, we just have to start with Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy. This has unquestionably become the most controversial firing in the history of this program. Mahsa was an Assistant D.A. from Brooklyn, NY looking to make a career move much like many of the shows candidates. In Mahsa’s case, she has stated her district had been making random budget cuts, which lead to layoffs. Rather than waiting to be put out to pasture by the D.A’s office, she applied to be a contestant on NBC’s The Apprentice. At the end of task 1, her team lost-she was brought back to the boardroom by project manager (PM) Nicole. During the heated showdown, she was labeled everything from polarizing, abrasive, and a few words I care not include. Now most notably, when she was brought back to the boardroom in week 7, she was labeled a liar and disloyal. Now I’m assuming for legal reasons, Mr. Trump fired her for being disloyal, though the painting was already on the walls with regard to her being labeled a liar. After that airing, she immediately posted a video on Youtube that went viral in just hours. She demanded Mr. Trump clear her name, or there would be further action taken on her behalf.

Eventually, she later appeared on several media outlets, and finally Gov. Mike

Click photo to watch video interview on Youtube.

Huckabee’s talk show which ultimately vindicated her of being branded a liar. She also claimed in the video, before she removed it, that Mr. Trump sent her a letter of apology, and she sort of hinted that he says in the document that he knew she wasn’t lying. During the boardroom showdown, Mahsa alleged she and Clint, another contestant, mutually shared with one another how much each team made during a previous task that involved cash handling. Clint and Team Octane stormed back into the boardroom in an effort to help him clear his name of such allegations. Eventually, from what we saw through the power of editing, the remaining candidates, and the Trump family verbally destroyed Mahsa. There was a point when Mr. Trump asked Brandy if he thought Mahsa was lying. The camera pans over to Clints face, which seemed to express uncertainty and fear, as to how Brandy would respond. After a brief hesitation on Brandy’s behalf, Brandy and Clint made eye contact, and Brandy proceeded to state she definitely thought Mahsa was lying. At this point, Mr. Trump says it didn’t matter what Mahsa said or didn’t say, so he fired her for being disloyal. I find this highly questionable for many reasons. What would identify as disloyal? The task was already completed. The only thing they did was compare results in regards to how much money the teams earned after the pedicab sales event was concluded, but before the boardroom session commenced. Now apparently this may have been against the rules, but she was the only one terminated, but terminated for disloyalty? What about Clint’s role in the discussion? He too participated in such a conversation, but was spared. Keep in mind, she was fired for disloyalty, but that makes absolutely no sense. It’s a joke. The icing on top of the cake is that she was butchered 1 week after it happened (1 task prior), thus no one was fired for actually losing the current task at all.

Now we will hear the case of one Gene Folkes. Gene was a financial advisor, but like everyone else on this season of the show, the economy was not too friendly to his line of work. He applied to become a contestant and evidently made it. In task 1, he was nominated to be Team Octane’s 1st PM. He accepted the nomination and his team was victorious. His reward was the opportunity to meet with successful CEO Donald J. Trump. A very good reward, because he not only received valuable one on one time with the boss, he was also given candid advice from a highly successful businessman. Unfortunately, Gene’s praise was a bit short lived as we fast forward to task 5. Gene’s assignment here was to co-emcee a fashion show with David. By the time the show started, Gene was seemingly underprepared, and the event became a disaster. In the boardroom, Trump repeatedly shouted “But Gene couldn’t read! He couldn’t read!” It was very embarrassing to watch a grown man, who is educated in reality, be subjected to such a harsh verbal condemnation. I must admit, the way it went down, I was laughing during the presentation. In the boardroom when Gene was fired, I thought he deserved it for stuttering throughout the entire presentation, and he owned it as he would say. However, being labeled illiterate was out of line. What’s questionable about his firing you ask? Well, once again, the magic of editing can spin things the way it desires to. Aired on Tyana’s Podcast, Gene will reveal what happened behind the scenes. First off, he starts by stating he wasn’t given enough time on the internet to get the research done on the shoes. The production team limits their internet access throughout the series in general. Secondly, he also reveals that David accidentally broke the printer Gene needed to print out the info he acquired thus far. Already being on a limited window of time, he was unable to acquire the print outs, thus he conducts the presentation with a laptop at the podium. Disaster! And lastly, Gene reveals he didn’t have his eyeglasses. I went back to the episode and this was verified. The only time he in fact wore his eyeglasses in episode 5 was in the boardroom. They apparently weren’t allowed, or able to return to the suite because there weren’t enough camera crews to follow them. This is very interesting information to note here. Now whether Gene mentioned any of these factors in the boardroom, I’m not too sure, but wow, if he did, he wasn’t justifiably terminated.

Okay, we’ll move on to the final case of Anand Vasudev. Anand is local to New York City, and worked in private equity real estate managing high end portfolios. Automatically, this puts him a step above many in this contest, as working alongside Mr. Trump as his Apprentice will primarily revolve around real estate. Anand was portrayed as a competent, strong, and fierce leader early on. Even before he stepped up as PM of a task which led to his eventual downfall, we could clearly see Anand was the odds on favorite for quite some time as the contest progressed, and competitors were eviscerated. Now, let’s get to it. In week 6, Anand stepped up to be the official PM. The goal of this operation was to generate more revenue than the opposing team, Fortitude, by operating pedicab tours. By the end of the task, Anand led team Octane to a commanding victory over team Fortitude. Now before you get too excited, lets pull the breaks on the victory train, because 2 weeks later, information surfaces that Anand was discovered to apparently convey text messages to his local associates. He wanted them to come down to Trump towers and sign up for a pedicab tour to boost his chances in winning. Fortunately or unfortunately, no one he contacted showed up, but the text messages were discovered by Trump’s staff, which I’m assuming are simply producers in this case. I can never condone or defend cheating. He did something that was a clear violation to the rules. However, it has been brought to light by Tyana, Anand, Mahsa, and Poppy that others were participating in less than honorable activity that may have ushered them right out the door as well. I’m not condoning bad behavior to condone other bad behavior at all, but if you’re going to punish one person for breaking the rules of the game show, shouldn’t punishment be equal and extended to all? It was pretty sad to see Anand go, as he was the last bit of interest the show had left this season. What’s worse is that the guy was labeled a dishonorable businessman by being labeled a cheater on national television. Ouch!

Overall, we have to remember this season of the show was supposed to help these individuals get back on their feet, not bury them. I completely believe in taking accountability for one’s own actions, but this was done selectively. We clearly saw another contestant lie directly to Mr. Trump on 3 different occasions. He called the individual out on it once, but essentially, the issue was not further pressed. We’ve seen 2 other candidates stutter and stumble through their presentations as well, but alas, they were also spared. I’ll also note that they at least won their respective tasks. However, they weren’t berated the way Gene was. In fact, they were somewhat coddled.

I think the people above were singled out for pure entertainment value. Anand was PM of the Roman Chariots theme via the Pedicab task. In poetic justice, NBC showed us the rise and fall of a Roman Emperor? Mahsa was the tough as nails prosecutor that shut people down in any argument during the show. Being outside of the courtroom and placed into the boardroom, Mahsa became the defendant, and was axed. Gene was the guy who simply refused to play by the games goofy evolved rules, and he handled himself as a respectful professional and gentleman, more like the cast of the 1st season. So obviously, this is not good entertainment value for television. We did not see how David messed up the printer, thus telling us more why Gene couldn’t prepare a better presentation; adding to the fact he didn’t have his glasses. Again, it was entertaining, because I laughed very hard during his presentation. I thought he was nervous, but instead, he was portrayed in the boardroom as though his IQ suddenly dropped about 100 points.

The Apprentice has to decide whether they want to portray a serious business format, or display a 3 ring circus for entertainment. But considering this is perhaps the final season of the original concept to be aired, I guess it no longer matters. Sorry, but in a business community of the magnitude they are competing for, you can’t have both. I’ll reiterate the show started off more professional, and the individuals weren’t forced by George and others to have a shouting match like children in the boardroom. So you tell me what laws of business and respect need to be followed at any given time.

1. Anand Cheated
2. Gene took 80% of the task to finally manage David (who should have been fired immediately).3. Mahsa tisk tisk, the world is seeing how you conduct yourself. Look how she has conducted herself after this and did you read her apprentice bio? “Dealing with the financial pressures of being the sole breadwinner in her family” <– That's got to make her husband feel real good! NOT. LOL Not to mention she has launched a Twitter attack with Cronies that attack the show. If the show was so bad, why go on it? Grow up Be strong and move on before you hurt you career more. And David, he is a the worst candidate I’ve ever seen. Sorry, but who picks a fight during the show for no real reason. Thank goodness I have not invested too much time watching this show this season.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander; CLINT should have been fired too. Two people disclosed information; not just Mahsa, and she didn’t deny doing it. CLINT and BRANDY saw an opportunity to get rid of Masha and lied about it. Mahsa was and is Season 10; she will be the only person we remember.

Did you actually read the document in which I wrote? If you did, maybe you should read it again, but this time very carefully. The trivial nonsense in which the candidates went through is not exactly what they signed up for. In a direct example, as I recall, I think there it was episode 1 where Mahsa, in particular, revealed she only watched season 1 much like myself. Season 1 was in a different element and class of it’s own. It’s still my favorite season to this day. But overall, this article and why I wrote it goes beyond ‘The Apprentice.’ There is a message behind it. Please reread it carefully my friend. There are several important messages within this document that are not too hard to figure out.

P.S. In regards to hoping Mr.Trump acquires better candidates in upcoming seasons, if you like Celebrities running around on a game show attempting to raise money through their other wealthy friends, while continuing to promote their other wealthy friends companies via ‘Celebrity Apprentice’, that will be airing next season. This was, as we know it, the final Original Apprentice concept until furthre word. I think donating to charity is a very humanitarian thing to do, but all these folks are wealthy. They and their friends can donate and put the spotlight on their friends charitable causes anytime they wish. Originally, the show helped put everyday Americans to work in America. It was never just about $250k. The winners acquired a real job. I admire Trump for taking care of home first, and not shipping hundreds of thousands of his offices overseas. The program has lost it’s way unfortunately, and I don’t expect for it to be around much longer.

Excellent article; i agree that the show has lost its way. I think Season 10 hurt the participants more than helped them JUST FOR TV RATINGS. I hadn’t thought of it like that before reading the article, but you hit the mark dead-on. The shows producers show us what they want the audience to see, but maybe they’ve forgotten the people are “REAL” and in Season 10 it was about more than finding the next apprentice, it was about 2nd chances in a bad recession. I think there are many, many people that can relate to that right now.